The present disclosure relates to techniques for identifying and correcting errors in identifiers. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a technique that determines whether an identifier for an individual is invalid based on an identifier-generating technique, and if the identifier is invalid, calculates and selects a correct identifier.
Many financial transactions are conducted using financial instruments, such as credit cards and debit cards. Credit cards and debit cards typically include account numbers (which are henceforth referred to as ‘identifiers’), such as credit-card numbers and debit-card numbers. During a financial transaction, a consumer usually provides a credit card or a debit card to a merchant, who obtains the identifier either by swiping the card through a magnetic card reader, or by manually typing in the identifier using a keyboard.
However, such techniques for obtaining identifiers from credit cards and debit cards (and, more generally, financial instruments) are prone to errors. As a consequence, the identifiers provided by a magnetic card reader or a keyboard may be incorrect, which may disrupt a financial transaction and forces merchants to obtain the identifiers again. This approach is time-consuming and can be frustrating for the consumers and the merchants.